''No Country'' wins big at Critics' Choice

(FROM VARIETY) ? The Coen Brothers’ No Country For Old Men got an Oscar-season boost Monday night (Jan. 7) at the Broadcast Film Critics Association’s 13 annual Critics’ Choice Awards, winning best picture, best director for Joel and Ethan Coen, and best supporting actor for Javier Bardem. Other multiple winners included Hairspray, which got best acting ensemble and best actress for Nikki Blonsky; Juno, which won best comedy and best writer for Diablo Cody; and Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood, which earned Radiohead’s Johnny Greenwood the best composer award and Daniel Day-Lewis best actor honors. Julie Christie won best actress for Away from Her, and Amy Ryan earned best supporting actress for Gone Baby Gone. Actors were in attendance at the ceremony because unlike the canceled Golden Globes, the production companies behind the Critics’ Choice Awards, as well as VH1, which broadcast them, are not WGA signatories. Several actors did use the podium at the event to make a plea for the writers’ strike to end. ”When a strike happens it’s not just writers or actors, it’s restaurants and hotels and agencies [who are affected],” George Clooney said during his presentation to Don Cheadle of the first ever Joel Siegel Award for humanitarian work. ”All the players involved should lock themselves in a room and not come out until they finish.” (Variety)